The authors used a conceptual analysis, following Foucauldian genealogy, to consider the history of Nila Banton Smith's "American Reading Instruction." The goal was to make better sense of the challenges and opportunities facing literacy instruction today and to articulate the enormous responsibilities of literacy scholars to critically…

Background/Context: One of several challenges to fusing reading and science instruction through the use of reflective practice arises from recent claims that it is questionable whether anyone can "make" preservice teachers into reflective practitioners. This challenge has implications for researchers and teacher educators in general, especially if…

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal. Explains the apparent "conflicts" between findings of two research studies (with different purposes and methods) of the same classroom. Emphasizes the different natures of qualitative and quantitative research. (SR)

Calls into question the assumptions (1) that those who read unfamiliar text use analytic processing more than do those who read familiar text and (2) that introspective reporting interferes with comprehension. (FL)

Describes a procedure for helping students to reorganize text structured by listing. Details a study proving the effectiveness of the technique. (AEA)

Extends a conversation begun in response to issues the authors identified in their own work as writers of qualitative research and in the works of others. Discusses theory, methodology, representation and legitimation, and writing and write-up of qualitative research. (RS)

Examines the extent to which reading research supports the comprehension and vocabulary strategies recommended in content reading methods texts. Concludes that more of the research finds the strategies to be effective than finds them ineffective. (MM)

This paper describes the National Reading Research Center (NRRC), a federally funded center that intends to carry out research to discover what promotes readers' engagement in literacy activities, foster their critical thinking and strategic learning, and prepare them to meet the challenges of a technological age. The paper describes the mission…

A study was conducted (1) to determine if children select some strategies more frequently than others to comprehend story categories, and (2) to find out if children are able to talk about what they are thinking and doing as they read stories from a basal reader. Subjects, 30 second grade students reading at grade level, were randomly assigned to…

Describes a collaborative effort between an elementary school teacher and a university researcher to conduct joint research in content area reading. Discusses the advantages of such a collaborative project, as well as what the teacher and the researcher both learned. (HTH)

Focuses on adolescent students' perceptions of their own actions, thoughts, and motives related to classroom talk about texts. Finds that students are aware of the conditions they believe to be conducive to good discussions, knowledgeable about the different tasks and topics that influence their participation in discussions, and cognizant of how…

In a multicase study, adolescents at five culturally diverse sites across the United States engaged in face-to-face interactions as they reflected and reported on their perceptions of their own and other students' experiences in discussing regularly assigned content area texts. A social constructionist perspective provided the framework for the…

A study explored how adolescents' negotiations and interpretations of out-of-school reading discussions were shaped by larger institutional and societal contexts that regularly influence young people's actions and interactions with peers and adults. Drawing from a theoretical framework that conceives of discourse as social practice, such discourse…

Suggests that disabled readers can benefit from the use of mnemonic devices as they learn to recognize words and identify their meanings. (FL)

Reveals that fourth-grade children were able to tell the differences between expository and narrative text but still needed guidance in how to read the two types of materials best. (FL)